South Korea - S. Korea suspends entry of Vietnam migrant workers (follow-up)

SEOUL: South Korea has temporarily stopped accepting new migrant workers from Vietnam because about 2,000 Vietnamese have failed to leave after their work visas expired, an official said Wednesday.

Seoul since August has stopped offering Vietnamese the Korean-language tests which prospective migrant workers must take, a labour ministry official said, urging Hanoi to work harder to bring its workers back home.

More than 4,100 Vietnamese workers who entered the South in 2004 and 2005 were supposed to leave between January to August this year under the terms of their work visas that allowed them to stay up to six years.

But only about 2,200 of them have so far departed, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, saying the situation was "becoming quite serious."

Seoul in 2004 adopted a law to let its companies hire manual workers from 15 countries -- many in Southeast Asia -- because more and more South Koreans were shunning dirty and dangerous jobs.

Tens of thousands of workers from several countries entered the country under the visa, which can be renewed once after a three-year stay.

But about 27 percent of them have stayed even after their visas expired and the percentage of overstayers among the Vietnamese is nearly 50 percent, the official said.

"We have constantly asked the Vietnamese government to find ways to bring back those workers but have seen few measures taken so far," he said.

"We can't bring in more (Vietnamese) workers under these circumstances," he said, adding that the language test would be delayed until the number of illegals falls.

The ministry earlier estimated that about 160,000 foreigners of all nationalities were staying in the South illegally after their work or tourist visas expired.

"Many companies want to continue to hire the hard-working Vietnamese employees... but we can't accept new migrant workers if existing ones refuse to leave like this," said the ministry official.

- AFP/cc


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